[Intro audio: “There is a Dark Place,” by Tom Rosenthal]
Jordan (00:29):
Hi, I’m Jordan.
Lex:
And I’m Lex.
Jordan:
And this is Or, Learn Parkour.
Lex:
It’s a podcast about ADHD done by two complete fucking idiots who have ADHD.
Jordan:
We sure are. And we sure fucking do.
Lex:
We sure do.
Jordan:
Still.
Lex:
I feel like we say it every single time, but it really just bears repeating, I think, that A) This is not a podcast about parkour. It is instead a podcast about ADHD. But we are not doctors, we are not therapists. We are not medical providers of any kind. And anything we say, take with several grains of salt.
Jordan:
Whole box of salt.
Lex:
‘Cause like I said, two idiots.
Jordan:
Whole box of Morton Kosher. Just hold tight to that and hold tight to your butts cause we’re gonna talk about ADHD. We’re gonna get off topic ‘cause we have ADHD. Yeah. We’re gonna dry brine our turkeys with that salt and we’re gonna let it rip.
Lex:
Well, we are gonna rinse the brine off before we put it in the oven just because I’m watching my sodium intake ‘cause of family health problems that I’ve been warned about. I do appreciate that you washed the salt rub off this year.
Jordan:
Yeah. And then we’re gonna pat it down with some paper towels, make sure it’s nice and dry so we get that crispy skin. And then I take a little bit of Pam, a little bit of spray. Not your Aunt Pam.
Lex:
Yeah, I would hope. And also, if she had been here this weekend for Friendsgiving and didn’t say hi to me, I’d be like, “the fuck, Aunt Pam.”
Jordan:
That would be heartbreaking.
Lex:
It’d be heartbreaking. And I can’t imagine she would ever do that. But I’d be so hurt.
Jordan:
Yeah. So, yeah. Just to clarify, just the Pam that normally lives in our kitchen, not your Aunt Pam.
Lex:
Yeah. The spray. So you put that on the turkey.
Jordan:
Yeah. Give it a little tss-tss.
Lex:
Yeah. Kind of like how you would give an egg wash to a pastry. Crisp it up a little.
Jordan:
Exactly.
Lex:
I’ve been living with a baker chef for at least four years. Can you tell?
Jordan:
I’m so proud of you.
Lex:
Well, thank you.
Jordan:
You’ve learned so much.
Lex:
Thank you. It is funny because I used to work in a kitchen. Just never when I knew Jordan.
Jordan:
You also know a lot to begin with. But I feel like our culinary skills are melding. We’re becoming so powerful.
Lex:
We are the same, you and I. Hey, TBT to our Friendsgiving where I very loudly quoted the harpy from The Last Unicorn at one of your coworkers.
Jordan:
Who was very entertained and talked to me this morning about how that was so funny. And now they wanna watch The Last Unicorn again.
Lex:
Did they really?
Jordan:
Yeah. But anyways, we’re gonna have to cut this out.
Lex:
But yes. We’re so in sync, you and I. In a fun little paraphrase of the harpy from The Last Unicorn.
Jordan:
We’re so in sync, you and I.
Lex:
We’re so in sync, you and I. This harpy has haunted my dreams, sleeping, and waking. The harpy with multiple saggy tits, who just, the only line I can remember her delivering in that entire movie is just, “we’re the same, you and I.” And it’s like.
Jordan:
Why?
Lex:
Well, because, okay, so here’s the thing. The last unicorn, the titular last unicorn that the movie, in the book The Last Unicorn is about, is trapped at a sort of curiosity’s carnival.
Jordan:
Oh no.
Lex:
And is trapped with basically all of the magical animals that Mommy Fortuna, the witch who’s trapped all of these animals, and the unicorn, they’re all regular animals, but they’ve had enchantments put on them to make them look like manticores or like the serpent around the world. Things that are a lot scarier. And then the harpy and the unicorn don’t, well the unicorn, only the purest of hearts can actually see a unicorn. So she just looks like a horse to most people. So Mommy Fortuna gives her a fake horn on top of her other horn.
Jordan:
Interesting.
Lex:
So that people can see that she’s trapped a unicorn.
Jordan:
Yeah.
Lex:
And so the only real magical creatures that are trapped is the unicorn and a harpy. And harpies are notoriously, in fantasy, lore, in myth, very, very bloodthirsty and evil. That’s how they’re portrayed.
Jordan:
Well. Yikes.
Lex:
Yeah. But the harpy convinces the unicorn to set her free when the unicorn escapes. And she does because the unicorn is like, no one should be trapped. But one of the things that the harpy says to the unicorn is, “we’re the same, you and I.”
Jordan:
Can we get that one more time just for the record?
Lex:
No. So many times. Just kidding. “We’re the same, you and I.”
Jordan:
There it is. Thank you. There we go.
Lex:
Now we’re looking over at the levels and I’m like, none of them are red, but I don’t know how.
Jordan:
Cause I turned that off.
Lex:
Oh, okay. So they’re gonna be red when they come onto my computer to edit it. That’s fun. Okay. Well, so anyways, The Last Unicorn. Great movie. Not my DT this week, but it probably could be my DT any week.
Jordan:
Yeah. I’ve never seen it.
Lex:
Yeah, we should. That’s what we should do.
Jordan:
Oh, we should. That sounds like a very good plan. I would love to watch The Last Unicorn. So I understand this reference because you do make it often.
Lex:
I do. It’s like I said, this harpy just lives in my head. She may have freed the harpy from Mommy Fortuna’s cabinet of curiosity, horrible. However, the harpy is still trapped in my mind. She has so many tits, she has three or four and they’re all saggy.
Jordan:
Ah. I was like, how many tits are we talking here? I feel like three is a higher than average number, but more common than you would think.
Lex:
Yeah. It’s not like it’s uncommon when it’s this giant buzzard looking bird woman thing with several hanging down like fucking udders and it’s 1980s animation. So you’re just already scared to begin with, you know.
Jordan:
Birds don’t even have tits.
Lex:
Harpies do cause they’re half woman, half bird.
Jordan:
Oh, okay.
Lex:
Yeah. Essentially, that’s a very watered down explanation of what a harpy is, but yeah.
Jordan:
Sounds like there’s a lot of overwhelming things going on there. And the tits were just kind of the-
Lex:
Yeah. I mean, don’t even get me started on the tree with tits. We’ll watch it.
Jordan:
Okay.. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.
Lex:
You’ll be fine.
Jordan:
Trees defacto do not have tits though. I know that.
Lex:
This one does.
Jordan:
Why?
Lex:
It’s a magical tree.
Jordan:
For whom?
Lex:
Well, if I tell you who it’s for, that might be spoilers.
Jordan:
Oh, okay. Thank you for not spoiling it. I’m just trying to think through.
Lex:
How a tree could possibly have tits.
Jordan:
Why a tree could possibly need tits.
Lex:
To seduce a magician.
Jordan:
Why would you do that?
Lex:
Ask Peter S Beagle, he’s the one who wrote it.
Jordan:
I have a feeling that none of my questions will be answered even if I watched this movie.
Lex:
No, not at all.
Jordan:
Great. Wonderful.
Lex:
I think the only questions that will be answered are gonna be questions that you may have had about me as a person.
Jordan:
Ah, okay. All right. Well I’ll make sure and keep notes from that to share for the next episode.
Lex:
Yeah. Oh, well anyways, this episode is not about The Last Unicorn, but funnily enough it is about the Adderall shortage.
Jordan:
That was a hell of a segue.
Lex:
Well, I’m just like, l-o-l. Clearly our Adderall has worn off for the day. You know. So that was kind of the like, haha. But also maybe the hahaha is like I just went for it and made the switch.
Jordan:
You did, you just kick flipped right off of that.
Lex:
That’s what we do here.
Jordan:
I respect it. Yeah. Sweet flips. That’s been the whole deal.
Lex:
But yeah. Let’s kick flip right on into the very depressing news of the past couple months.
Jordan:
So yeah, today we are talking about the Adderall shortage. If you’re like us, you might have been hearing news about this for at least the last couple months. I feel like I’ve seen it start in August, some people were saying that they were having a hard time getting their Adderall prescriptions filled, even though, I don’t think at that time they had actually declared an official shortage.
Lex:
No, they hadn’t announced a shortage until October. Yeah. So the FDA announced on October 12th that the Adderall shortage was happening because one of the main suppliers of instant release Adderall, it’s a company called Teva, but as far as I’m aware, no affiliation with the shoes. But it could be, I don’t know, everything’s-
Jordan:
Wild.
Lex:
I mean, you look at Disney and you’re like, well, they own everything, not just silly little kids’ movies. So makes you wonder.
Jordan:
Yeah. It’s like a Unilever situation.
Lex:
Yeah. But I can’t imagine that Teva of Velcro sandal fame would also be like, do you know what would be a fun business venture? Pharmaceuticals.
Jordan:
Prescription grade stimulants.
Lex:
Yeah.
Jordan:
I feel like there’s not a lot of manufacturing overlap there, but I could be wrong. I could be wrong.
Lex:
We could be so wrong. We’re not professionals. You know.
Jordan:
I haven’t Googled it.
Lex:
Yeah. Essentially there’s this one company that makes the bulk of the Adderall that we use here in the United States and it’s this company called Teva, or “teh-va.” I’m not actually sure how they pronounce it. I’m gonna say “teeva.” Cause that’s how the shoes are pronounced.
Jordan:
I’ve heard those shoes are pronounced “teh-va.”
Lex:
If Teva comes out and is like, it’s pronounced “teh-va,” it’s like the fucker who was like, it’s actually jif.
Jordan:
Yeah. No. Okay. That’s fair. You know what I mean, that guy goes in the garbage. It’s gif.
Lex:
Yeah. It’s gif. So even if Teva came out to say that, I would be like, the fuck you’re called, the you mean you’re called Tevas. Tevas. Yeah. I got some Tevas.
Jordan:
Sounds like a weird, vegan canvas fabric that they try and market and keep people from saying it’s cotton, canvas is already vegan. What the fuck are you talking about?
Lex:
Yeah, exactly.
Jordan:
That’s what Teva would be.
Lex:
That’s what Teva would be.
Jordan:
You’d buy a raincoat made out of it and it’d be like $200, but it’d be canvas. So it would suck.
Lex:
Yeah. Well, so what I’m trying to think right now is how many people are gonna start messaging us after this episode drops and just be like, well, I say Tava and if that’s you, that’s fine. We love interaction in all its forms.
Jordan:
Yeah. You can say whatever you want.
Lex:
Just know that you’re wrong. A very, very good thing to say on a podcast to the audience, you’re wrong. It’s okay that you’re wrong. It’s okay. You’re allowed to be wrong. That’s fine. But you are wrong.
Jordan:
It’s actually only Tavas if it’s from the Velcro region of France. Not just sparkling sandals.
Lex:
See now there’s a good joke, sorry. I mean that in terms of Teva. That made it sound like Jordan just tries to hit me with zingers all day every day. And I’m like, no, not funny.
Jordan:
But I do appreciate that if I do try and hit you with a zinger, you’ll be honest about it.
Lex:
Yeah. The problem is that so often most of laughter for me really is just a mindset thing. And I’m sure you’ve noticed that over the years because sometimes I will think something’s funny, but if I’m not in the right headspace to let out a laugh, I’ll just stare at Jordan.
Jordan:
One of my favorite things in the entire fucking world is when I will text you something that I know is really good. And I get back and all caps LMFAO, but you’re in the room right next to me and I can hear the dead silence.
Lex:
Yeah. And you can see me staring at my phone with a completely blank face. I will say, usually if I’m typing out LMFAO, you will at least get just a little like- (small chuckle).
Jordan:
Appreciate that.
Lex:
But it is really funny. I do enjoy when you just come and stand in the door of my room and you maybe don’t know how much weed I’ve smoked that day. And then you’re like, hey, hey, wanna hear something stupid? And I’m like, yeah, sure, hit me. And then you tell me something that is objectively fucking funny and I’m like, cool bro. And you’re just like, “uhh.”
Jordan:
No, I know what that’s worth now. I also appreciate the good LOL.
Lex:
Oh yeah.
Jordan:
Like when you just say L-O-L.
Lex:
L-O-L. Yeah. Yeah.
Jordan:
Yep. That’s another classic.
Lex:
I can’t take credit for that one. I think I got that from Marmar. My cousin Marmar will go L-O-L. Even if things aren’t funny. Or it’s funny how bad something is. Do you know what I mean? I feel like I’m coming, surprise, I have some combative energy this week.
Jordan:
As opposed to?
Lex:
Exactly, yeah. I mean, I guess I do bring kind of just combative energy anywhere I go, but I like to think it’s combatively friendly. Like with strangers. Mostly.
Jordan:
Yeah. Depending on the stranger.
Lex:
Yeah. And depending on the interaction. But I mean, we went to your staff holiday party. And I got to be your plus one, which was very fun.
Jordan:
You were wonderful arm candy.
Lex:
Thank you. Thank you. Great arm to be candy upon.
Jordan:
I’ve tried. I’ve been doing my pushups.
Lex:
Hell yeah, bro. Hell yeah. We’ve been lifting some tables up and downstairs. So, so sore still.
Jordan:
Little sore. Yeah.
Lex:
That’s fine.
Jordan:
A good table though, it was worth it..
Lex:
Such a good table.
Jordan:
Also, I messaged the guy who sold it to us on Facebook marketplace and apparently the actual table legs slide out too to hold the sides up. ‘Cause I couldn’t figure out how to get the flaps up.
Lex:
How to get the flaps up. I was wondering. I was like, so we put the leaves in, but we just left the flaps down. That’s fine. Maybe we just don’t need that much space. I’m not gonna question their judgment on this. I was frantically trying to finish cleaning. And then we were trying to figure out how to cover the tables.
Jordan:
Cover the tables. And oven space.
Lex:
Yeah. We had this super fun idea of like, people do this on Pinterest all the time, so it’s not like we can take credit for it or anything, but just a cute fun idea of like, what can we do to decorate for Friendsgiving? We’re having a crowd that isn’t necessarily friends already, right? A bunch of different groups of people were coming together. And so I was like, what if we have butcher paper or craft paper on the tables and we just put out some markers and colored pencils or crayons or whatever. And then people can write down what they’re thankful for or draw or whatever, you know, whatever. And we realized we didn’t have enough craft paper for that.
Jordan:
Yeah. I used it all up doing weird performance art. Sorry.
Lex:
It’s okay. That’s what it’s for. So you know, so we were trying to figure out a last minute solution to that, which we ended up finding some very nice 11 by 14 cuts of paper.
Jordan:
Yeah. Which I think was great and probably much more manageable to hold onto than a big ass piece of craft paper.
Lex:
And so everybody got a little place mat to color on. ‘Cause that was very fun. But we were trying to figure that out.
Jordan:
There was a lot of troubleshooting happening in oven time.
Lex:
Oh my gosh. Yeah. A couple of people that needed to put their stuff in the oven when they got there, which, as you do, it’s just sort of in the nature of Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving or any sort of food based holiday where you’re like-
Jordan:
Any kind of potluck situation.
Lex:
You just gotta be ready that, oh it says three so we’ll probably eat at four. It’s generally, you know, that’s how it goes. If you don’t know that now you do.
Jordan:
Now you do.
Lex:
I mean that’s not a general all over rule. I guess some people maybe are better at their time management and like la-di-da, good for you.
Jordan:
But if we haven’t mentioned yet, this is an ADHD podcast so you can guess how good our time management is.
Lex:
And this episode is dropping several days late.
Jordan:
Yeah. You can put those pieces together yourself.
Lex:
So pieces that didn’t get put together are pieces of the manufacturing supply chain for instant release Adderall.
Jordan:
Bringing it back. Great.
Lex:
Bringing it back. So yeah, basically, yet again those dang supply chains have foiled us. But yeah, basically a lot of manufacturing delays and since they’re the biggest supplier there have been a lot of Adderall shortages and the FDA predicts that the Adderall shortage will continue into early 2023 or longer. And so what we’re here today to talk about is not necessarily the shortage mechanics.
Jordan:
Yeah.
Lex:
But more about how this is working out, how it’s playing out.
Jordan:
How to cope.
Lex:
How to cope. Some options because I mean, and if you’ve read any article, I feel like that was the one thing I noticed is every article that I read for the most part on this, they all were really like, hey here’s some options, talk to your primary care provider about switching to a different type of ADHD medication or a different dosage. Things like that. So the articles have been like, here’s some things you can do to try and mitigate this.
Jordan:
And that’s what my psychiatrist said because I asked cause I heard about this and I was like, well shit. First thing to do, ask the pharmacy what they do have and what they are able to get. And then from there, a lot of times, depending on your situation and what works for you, it’s possible to mix it around. Instead of taking one 15 milligram extended release, you can take three five milligram instant releases over the course of the day or if you can give that information to your doctor they can kind of retool things. So that’s one of the first things that she told me.
Lex:
Yeah. Yeah. Which is great. Great advice. Probably the first step that everybody should try, right? Is to see if you can get a different dosage or you could try getting extended release because the shortage has really only affected instant release, but because of the ripple effect of people needing to start using more extended release and other dosages of instant release things are starting to sort of ripple out and so it can be kind of hard to finagle and tweak those things. But the other thing is you could potentially switch to another drug entirely like something like Ritalin. You just have to be really careful with that and definitely talk to your doctor if you have one because you need to call somebody who will know how medications will interact in your brain and your body. Cause some antidepressants and some anti-anxiety medicines when mixed with Ritalin don’t behave in the same way as they do when mixed with Adderall. And some of those things can end up with some really, really not great effects. There have not been any super publicized deaths that can be specifically related to the Adderall shortage, but people getting Adderall off of the quote unquote black market and it being meth, it being fentanyl. Someone may have actually put fentanyl in that pill that you think might be Adderall. So it really is like people aren’t always aware of what they’re buying and dealing. You know?
Jordan:
Yeah. And to that end, for what it’s worth, obviously our first advice here is talk to a doctor. Talk to a health professional who can guide you through the safest way to figure this out. But we don’t know everybody’s situation. So if for some reason you have to DIY this a little bit, please, there are so many resources online for looking at at least an initial overview of how medications interact with other things. A lot of county health departments have fentanyl test strips that you can get for free. Again, that’s not at all the route that we’re recommending, but harm reduction is important and you deserve to be safe.
Lex:
Yeah. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion. It might be in some circles, but I think it should be a more popular opinion. I think that almost everybody should have Narcan on hand. Because whether you have friends who are partaking in heavy stimulant drugs that are very heavily regulated and sometimes illegal, right? Even if you don’t have people in your life who are in that situation, if you’re ever in a place where somebody’s overdosing and you have that in your backpack, that’s huge, but also for these sorts of situations that we’ve been hearing about over the past couple of months. And so I think, again, we can’t offer any official medical advice and we are not trying to do that, but just sort of a, try to use the legal avenue. You know what I mean? Cause there are a lot of options. You can go and you can talk to different pharmacies and from what I understand, a lot of pharmacists and doctors have been pretty understanding of this shortage and I will say the main cause of this is supply chain issues, which is what’s been affecting the entirety of the global economy. However, you may be reading or hearing that some people think there’s an Adderall shortage because the amount of online ADHD diagnoses have gone up and yes, they have gone up.
Jordan:
That’s a complicated issue.
Lex:
Because that doesn’t mean that all of those people have all started taking instant release Adderall. You invite what I mean?
Jordan:
So even if that does bump up the things, the FDA sets the amount of Adderall that can be produced in a year because it’s a controlled substance. So that’s not on people who are trying to get a tool that they just found out about that’s really helpful. This is a pet peeve forever of how difficult Adderall and other stimulants are to get. Specifically to the people who need them.
Lex:
Yeah. Well and, I mean, you are specifically somebody who has dealt with, personally, a psychiatrist, who was a piece of shit and was like, “well you’re not fidgety. I don’t think you have ADHD and I think that you’re actually lying so that you can get Adderall as a study drug.” And Jordan’s over here, just like the most ADHD bitch I’ve ever met.
Jordan:
Like, not only was I late to the appointment, they gave me the stupid little assessment thing, I got the ADHD score on it and then I go and I sit in this guy’s office and he does this weird, like, “I’m not gonna give you Adderall because I don’t think that you’re ADHD enough, but you didn’t ask for Adderall. So I know that you’re not a drug seeker.” Hate that phrase. “But if you ask for Adderall then you can’t have it for sure because then I know you’re just here for Adderall.” And I was like-
Lex:
How the is someone supposed to win in that situation? You aren’t. There’s no way.
Jordan:
There’s no way. You go find another psychiatrist.
Lex:
You go find another psychiatrist, which is what you were able to do and that’s awesome. But we recognize that there are a lot of shitty actors out there. Bad actors or whatever they call them. For what
Jordan:
For what it’s worth, and this is me pulling this entirely out of my ass-
Lex:
Well, we love to do that here.
Jordan:
There was an article, another news article, making the rounds about how in talking to your doctor it can be beneficial to frame things as a, like, “hey, somebody in my life suggested I might have xyz or this might be a particular treatment that they’ve heard is helpful or something like that. Do you think that that’s a possibility?” Instead of just outright saying like, I think I have ADHD, can I try Adderall? And it sucks that that’s a method you have to use to get your doctor to listen to you about your health.
Lex:
Yeah.
Jordan:
But they pointed out that that kind of gets the doctor on your side of against this fake or otherwise not present loved one and more open to figuring those things out.
Lex:
Yeah. It’s so stupid. What? I’m about to say a very sweeping statement, but I stand behind it fullheartedly, so I’m gonna say it with my whole chest. The war on drugs has ruined almost everything because-
Jordan:
It was entirely ineffective.
Lex:
Yeah. No, the drugs won. So jot that down. But also it just criminalized anybody trying to seek any sort of treatment with stimulants, it’s kind of ridiculous. The fear mongering that’s happening with this as well though. And I recognize that a lot of these people who have written these articles on opinions and thought pieces on the Adderall shortage seem to be coming at it from, listen, the FDA needs to raise the cap and farm this out because we need more Adderall because whether you think people are faking it or not, they have those prescriptions. They have been prescribed Adderall and they are not getting it. So, you know.
Jordan:
Unless that’s you or your patient, it’s not fucking up to you.
Lex:
Exactly. And so I will say a lot of the fear mongering type stuff has seemed to be more directed towards the government and more that people are going to die because of this. But some of it has been a little bit more fear monger-y in the way of like, well if people die it’s because of these people who are diagnosing themselves and then getting the prescription drugs or taking other people’s prescriptions and blah blah.
And it’s like, one of the things that I read was an op-ed from the LA Times. So in their defense I should have known maybe where this would’ve gone, you know, before I started reading it. But essentially it’s an op-ed warning of the two major public health crises that could, can, and are occurring due to this shortage. And the first one is Adderall withdrawal symptoms. Because especially if you have very severe ADHD and you take your Adderall every single day cuz the normal pattern that that doctors and pharmacists often suggest, especially for kids who have to take Adderall, they suggest that they take Adderall during the week on school days and then not take anything over the weekends primarily because of appetite, the appetite suppressant is the main reason for that.
But another reason is because if you take a stimulant every single day and then you stop after a long time of doing it every single day, the withdrawal symptoms can be pretty nasty. It’s not like you’re gonna die from the physical aspect of it. But the primary symptoms of ADHD withdrawal are nausea, headaches, fatigue, and very deep depression. So essentially a large fear is the amount of people who will be at risk of suicide or who are at risk of suicide due to withdrawal from Adderall. So, no, that fucking sucks. Big agree. That’s not great. Don’t want that to happen.
And the second thing that they talked about, essentially, the much deadlier- statistically- version, right, is that people will continue to turn to the black market to seek some sort of Adderall or take it from their friends who maybe don’t use it as often. And when you start taking doses of medicine that you are not supposed to be taking or that don’t mix well with your other medications or you get some Adderall that’s not actually Adderall and it turns out to just be fucking fentanyl. You could die. And people, nothing is directly linked yet to this shortage specifically that I can find. But there are a couple of deaths that have happened in the past couple of months that people have pointed to in a like, hey FDA, this is a sign that things are probably going to get worse before they get better. Very similar to the beginning of the opioid crisis.
And so essentially this is so sad, like, I’m sorry, we don’t really talk about funny things. I know that last episode we ranked and talked about which monsters would have ADHD, so our bad, but also this is pretty important. And I feel like, as an ADHD podcast, we both felt like it was important to at least mention that this is happening. So if you weren’t aware, now you know, but also, it’s everywhere. Basically, but also, just to let you know that you’re not the only ones who are struggling to find Adderall. This is a problem globally at this point. So you’re not alone and there are options and as much as it sucks, the FDA has not raised the cap or anything. The supply chain issues have not been ironed out. And so the shortage is going to continue.
So I think we really just wanted to come on and say, please be careful. And just use your best judgment and just take care of yourself, take care of each other. We say that all the time. Yeah.
Jordan:
Yeah. It seems like, I mean, one of the things that we always want to do with this show is talk about our experience and talk about things to help anybody listening feel like they’re not alone and they’re not the only thing, and they’re not the only person who goes through things like this. So, you know, if you’re in that boat and are dealing with this Adderall shortage, you’re not alone and you have a lot of tools at your disposal. Talk to your doctor or psychiatrist, see if you can change your dosage, see if you can change to another stimulant. See if you can change to a non stimulant medication. I know that we’ve talked about a lot of those in other episodes. See if you can, like Lex mentioned, it’s really better for you usually to not take Adderall every day. So if you can make your dose work a little longer for you by taking it less and planning your tasks around that, that’s an option.
Lex:
Yeah. I think another thing that’s probably worth mentioning is if you are at the point where you are out of Adderall and you do not have any other options to get stimulant medications, I think at that point I would say be sure to let someone else in your life who cares about you know what you’re going through and what’s going on. Because there are a lot of people who aren’t gonna be able to access the black market. Right. I know there are a lot of people who are like, I don’t even know what that means. Why do they call it the black market? What is it? Where is it? Do I have to go to a special place? You know what I mean?
Jordan:
What’s the website?
Lex:
Yeah. Exactly. And so, you know, there’s a lot of different ways that could end up with somebody just not having any options and not having any stimulants to take. And I think that’s when I’m like, well this is the part where you need to just let people in your community know because you’re gonna be struggling and you’re gonna need some help probably. And that’s okay. I think that’s the other thing right? If you really have no solutions here, that’s okay. It sucks. It’s not okay, but it’s okay. Do you know what I mean?
Jordan:
It’s not okay, but you deserve support and decency through this situation.
Lex:
And if you’re really, really all alone and you don’t have any stimulants, well hey, you got this episode, you got two fucking idiots in Chicago telling you that you’ll be okay if you, you know, well, I don’t know. Can’t say you’ll be okay ‘cause we don’t know, I’m not an oracle.
Jordan:
We hope that you will. And if you’re in a situation where it just feels like it’s a lot and you’re dealing with those withdrawal symptoms specifically, that will get better, that will pass. You can say medically speaking will improve.
Lex:
Medically speaking it will pass. Doesn’t mean it’s any less difficult in the interim, but sometimes knowing that there’s even a light at the end of the tunnel, even if you can’t see the light yet, knowing that there is one that you will see eventually. Do you know what I mean?
Jordan:
Yes. There is a deadline to this feeling and us ADHD motherfuckers love a deadline.
Lex:
Yeah. We do. And, you know, hopefully the FDA will take some more action on this if things don’t improve sometime soon.
Jordan:
If you have the resources and wherewithal to talk to your representatives about that, to take care of people in your community who are going through that, get some Narcan and carry it, do that.
Lex:
Yeah. Basically, you just don’t know what’s gonna happen or who you’re gonna be around at any given time, you know. So this has been incredibly sad, but I feel like if there’s any sort of light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, if you really can’t see it, we will remind you, you deserve to feel safe and loved and healthy. And if it makes you feel any better, we’re going through it too. Cuz we gotta take Adderall and, at least for me, I asked about getting my instant release and my dosage is one of the, I asked to see where that was at. Cuz I don’t normally take my instant release as much anymore. Thankfully I can still get my extended release and that’s what I really rely on. But if it helps to know, I personally am not able to get my instant release at this time. And just on personal levels, without a shortage, we’ve both had different periods where we’ve had to go without Adderall for a little bit and sometimes we just have to pick up the rest of the yoke for our bro, you know.
Jordan:
We got you, bro.
Lex:
We got you, bro. We just gotta take care of each other, so, I feel like, you know, if anything, at least we got each other, you know.
Jordan:
We sure do. We sure do. So, thanks for tuning in. We’re glad you’re here.
Lex:
Yeah. We are really glad you’re here.
Jordan:
Should we end this one on a slightly lighter note?
Lex:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we can’t just end it right there. Yeah.
Jordan:
That’d be dark as hell.
Lex:
That’d be so dark. Oh my god. Hey, good luck with the Adderall shortage. We love you, but good luck.
Jordan:
Godspeed, motherfucker.
Lex:
Godspeed. Godspeed, motherfuckers. Have fun out there. Oh well, team. It’s Hunger Games for this Adderall shit. Jesus.
Jordan:
Don’t give ’em ideas.
Lex:
Sorry. Yeah, please don’t, please don’t hurt each other for Adderall. Please. That’s the last thing we want.
Jordan:
No, I wasn’t thinking ideas for the listeners. I was like, don’t let the FDA hear you. They’ve already come up with enough-
Lex:
Fucked up shit.
Jordan:
Hoops to jump through to get Adderall.
Lex:
To get Adderall and having to kill Katniss Everdeen for it does seem to add quite a hefty loop.
Jordan:
Yep.
Lex:
Let’s move on to something a little lighter. And not even move on. Should we jump? Let’s jump, let’s jump.
Jordan:
Let’s jump on over to the Dopamine Trampoline.
Lex:
Ba-boing. Yes. Welcome to the Dopamine Trampoline. It’s a very fun and not sad segment of the show that we do most episodes. And it’s a time where we talk about things that make us happy, aka things that give us dopamine. Whether that’s a hyper fixation, something we just found funny this week, or a deeply seated love of something from childhood. We come here to talk about it. So let’s hop on up and tell me about your Dopamine Trampoline, Jordan.
Jordan:
I would love to.
Lex:
Making the segue from sad content into the Dopamine Trampoline always feels like such a fucking ingenuine switch. But then at the same time I’m like, oh, thank God, I can laugh again. You know what I mean? I’m like, I can make jokes again. Like, okay. Okay. Okay. We’ll be fine. To all of you in the audience, if you’re like, that’s jarring. Yeah, it is.
Jordan:
But we weren’t gonna leave it on that. I think we’d all like to laugh a little bit now. If you don’t, I guess you can just turn off the episode now.
Lex:
If you wanna just cry a little, just have some time to yourself, we get it. But if you wanna cheer up after your little cry, un-pause it and come on back.
Jordan:
Yeah. We’ll be here for you. We’ll be here in your phone or computer or other audio playing device or in this transcript or in the ether. Our voices will be in the ether.
Lex:
However you access our podcast normally, just do that. Okay.
Jordan:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Lex:
Putting it out on the ether into the ethereal plane waves like that. Buzzsprout, as great as they are, they don’t put it out there. So we have to do that ourselves. And then sometimes you have to wrangle, you know, some real characters.
Jordan:
It takes a lot of power to shift into that. The vibrations are just tiring.
Lex:
Yeah. Somehow higher than anything we can hear with our human ears. But also low enough that it makes me shit my pants. You know. Just going to meet Cthulu in the ethereal wherever and shitting my pants because those deep, deep beach boys vibrations. Please tell me what your Dopamine Trampoline is before I say anything else.
Jordan:
Puzzle. Puzzle. Yeah. Yeah. Not just puzzles generally, one specific puzzle.
Lex:
Oh. So fuck puzzles.
Jordan:
Fuck puzzles. Except this one.
Lex:
Okay. I think we have different opinions on puzzles, but that’s okay then, that’s fine.
Jordan:
No. Puzzles in general are jigsaw puzzles. I’ll help out on a jigsaw puzzle. That’s great, but I’m talking about one specifically.
Lex:
Okay. So this is the one that gave you dopamine? I see.
Jordan:
The specific puzzle that gave me so much dopamine. I got distracted working on it today and that’s why I was late coming home to record this episode.
Lex:
I was wondering, I was like, I got home before you. What the fuck happened?
Jordan:
It’s because I was doing a puzzle.
Lex:
Yeah. So tell me about this puzzle.
Jordan:
Yeah, so very kindly, like I think we mentioned earlier in this episode, I had a work event on Friday and a lot of folks were in town. A lot more folks were in the office than normal work. Kind of a hybrid work situation. And our lovely, wonderful, thoughtful office manager brought in a big thousand piece jigsaw puzzle to leave on the conference room to give people something to do because everyone kind of just accepted that we weren’t getting any work done on Friday.
Lex:
Well, and that was the day they did headshots. So there was, I imagine, some amount of just sort of sitting and waiting.
Jordan:
Yeah. A little bit of, yeah, waiting, being ready, trying to figure out what’s going on. That sort of thing. So very thoughtfully: puzzle. And not just any puzzle. It’s called a meta puzzle, it has nothing to do with Facebook at promise, but the image that we’re putting together is a photo of somebody doing a jigsaw puzzle.
Lex:
Okay. Oh good. That’s okay. All right. Say more, say more. I’m still with you.
Jordan:
There’s some parts of it I really enjoy. Like the person, you can see their sleeve and their top and there’s a lot of really good textures and patterns.
Lex:
Oh, okay.
Jordan:
Putting puzzle pieces together to match a pattern up, I’m good at that part.
Lex:
Well and I was gonna say, that’s kind of nice cause as much as I love the way that a beautiful painted landscape painting looks, the clouds are all the same. It’s all the same. It’s all the same.
Jordan:
But that’s where this puzzle has variety cause there’s some parts that have that specificity, but then there’s also just the puzzle’s on a marble table and it’s not finished. So there’s just a big spot of marble. There are two separate green coffee cups. So you’re like, “oh that looks like the edge of a green cup. I know where that goes.” No, the fuck you don’t.
Lex:
That’s-
Jordan:
Tricky. It is. It’s a real, real tricky dick.
Lex:
I really want to go get a puzzle.
Jordan:
I know, me too.
Lex:
I’m like, shit, will the cats eat puzzle pieces? ‘Cause that’s the only thing, they might try to eat those cause it’s cardboard. And it’s little tiny treat-size cardboard. Yeah.
Jordan:
We could do what my mom always does ‘cause my mom is a puzzle fiend.
Lex:
Yeah. My grandpa was too. Yeah, yeah. I think we talked about this before, we both did puzzles growing up a fair amount… Sorry, continue.
Jordan:
But what my inspired mother figured out was we have a dining table that has a plastic sheet over it underneath the tablecloth. She will flip up the plastic sheet, do the puzzle just straight on the bare table and then can just flip the plastic sheet and the tablecloth down. Hold it down out of the way of the cats, easy transfer, you know, you can put it away when you need to put it away, but you don’t fuck anything up.
Lex:
By God, Angela, you’ve done it again.
Jordan:
Truly. Truly.
Lex:
Oh my god.
Jordan:
No, for real.
Lex:
We have a plastic table cover and tablecloths. All right. We gotta get through this episode and go get some motherfucking puzzles Yeah.
Jordan:
Yeah, we do.
Lex:
Let’s get to the toy store, bro.
Jordan:
All right. Yeah, it’s a really fun puzzle. It’s not done yet. It’s still on the conference room table, but I got most of the person’s top put together today, so I’m very proud of myself for that.
Lex:
I’m so proud of you.
Jordan:
Thank you. I’m really looking forward to being in the office again on Thursday because-
Lex:
You can do more puzzle.
Jordan:
I can do more puzzle.
Lex:
Yes. Yeah. I’m so happy for you. Now I know exactly what to ask when you get home on Thursday.
Jordan:
Amazing. I’ll keep you posted. You’ll probably get pictures. Speaking of pictures though, that is the one other delight of this whole puzzle endeavor, is that we have agreed as a group that next year’s office party, by then we will have solved this puzzle. We will take a picture of the solved puzzle and we will get it printed on another puzzle.
Lex:
So you’re just gonna keep having meta puzzles. So, okay. Can I ask, what’s the puzzle that the person in the puzzle is making?
Jordan:
It’s hard to tell. I’m not sure. It’s not very put together.
Lex:
Okay, there’s not a reference image? Oh. But in the- it’s not put- I see.
Jordan:
There’s no reference image in the puzzle of the puzzle that’s in the puzzle.
Lex:
Okay. Interesting. Well, you know, that’s actually kind of better because now I can just pretend that it’s Ryan Gosling wearing a shirt of Macaulay Caulkin wearing a shirt with Ryan Gosling. You know what I mean? And then I can just imagine that is in there. And then he is carrying a mug with a picture of you, with a picture of your cousin. Holding the picture, holding the mug with the picture of you. And so on and so forth.
Jordan:
Should I get the picture of me holding the mug with the picture of my cousin holding the mug with the picture of me on a puzzle?
Lex:
Yeah.
Jordan:
Nice. Well that’s all set. ‘Cause I was kind of wondering, she sent me the mug. We’ll put a picture on Instagram for everybody to see. I sent my cousin a mug that has a picture of me holding a mug on it. You good, bro?
Lex:
I’m good. It’s just so funny.
Jordan:
Thank you. Thank you. I’m quite delighted by it.
Lex:
Every time I’m reminded, it’s funny. Thank you. That’s the type of shit that I’m like, this will entertain me endlessly.
Jordan:
Well I hope it goes on endlessly. The ball’s in my court here because I sent my cousin the mug with the picture of me on it. I had to start somewhere. And then they just sent me a mug with a picture of them holding the mug with the picture of me on it. And I was like, where do you go from there? Because you kind of wanna keep doing the mug thing because it gets super meta. But-
Lex:
We have so many mugs.
Jordan:
We have so many mugs. I think generally speaking, there is a maximum amount of mugs that people can fit in their homes.
Lex:
Yeah. And we are nearing our cap already. So puzzle, which is fun because then your cousin won’t even know that you’re playing a joke until they finish the puzzle.
Jordan:
They do have a two-year-old though. So I’m wondering about the practical consequences of puzzle pieces.
Lex:
Make it big puzzle pieces so the kid can participate, get that kid started fucking early.
Jordan:
Oh, good call. Good call, bro.
Lex:
Yeah. No, they make puzzles with giant pieces for little kids. They make mats for them to sit on on the floor that are like puzzle-piece shaped for some reason that’s just like a real big thing in daycares, whatever.
Jordan:
Well they fit together.
Lex:
Yeah. No, I know why. I know why. I know why the foam cubes are used.
Jordan:
I think it’s soft and then they fit together. So kids don’t like-
Lex:
Die. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think the thing that bothers me about those like puzzle floorings is that all of the puzzle pieces are always different colors. And so when you look at it, you’re like, this isn’t a puzzle. They’re puzzle pieces. They’re shaped like puzzle pieces. But this is not a puzzle.
Jordan:
Yeah.
Lex:
Like you’re just putting different colored shapes together. Which I guess that’s also what you could say about any other puzzle. So like, you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you. Okay. I’m mad again. No-
Jordan:
Well, why don’t you tell me what your Dopamine Trampoline is? You can kind of brush off that anger. Forget about the flooring.
Lex:
Me? Brushing anger off. What does that mean? Throw this anger at the wall.
Jordan:
Being distracted from it for five minutes please.
Lex:
Oh yeah. No, that’s fair. Please God. “Please, please. Lex, find something happy please, look shiny.” Yeah. Okay. So my Dopamine Trampoline this week is photo booths. Yeah. We posted on Instagram cause we’re moving away from the now very extra evil site cause it was probably pretty shitty before too. But now I’m like, well.
Jordan:
It’s a train wreck now.
Lex:
It’s a train wreck. So we’ve hopped off that. So if you wanna keep up with us, just started making the move to Instagram. We’re trying anyways. But we posted the pictures from it. But Jordan and I, surprisingly, I was sort of like, wow, we haven’t done this before, but we had never done a photo booth together ever.
Jordan:
It is wild.
Lex:
Weird. Yeah, no, I’m like, we’re both so twee indie bullshit bitches that how haven’t we, and we’ve both done photo booths on numerous occasions with other people. But never together until this Friday. After Jordan’s work event, another one of Jordan’s coworkers is in a band. So we went to the show and a bunch of us went to the show and it was very fun. It was wonderful. All the people were so lovely. It’s great. Whatever. That’s awesome. But the real highlight was the photo booth.
Jordan:
Like a classic, old fashioned.
Lex:
Yeah. You put $2 in.
Jordan:
It was like five. Inflation.
Lex:
All right, well you put some money in and then you have a little countdown and it takes a couple pictures of you.
Jordan:
It’s super zoomed in on your face. There’s, you know, four of ’em, no nonsense, no fun colors. You have your five seconds to take the picture and by God you better figure it out.
Lex:
Yeah. And so we did and it was very fun. But it made me think about like, hmm, I wonder when photo booths were invented because it is such a fun thing still. Right. You see a photo booth and I feel like every time I see one, even if I’m by myself, I’m like, I kind of just wanna go sit in one anyways. It’s like a nice little moment of peace if nothing else.
Jordan:
It’s a little cozy space. What did you find out?
Lex:
I took to Wikipedia because I decided that this would be my Dopamine Trampoline today. So I did not really do much research on this, but when do I ever, on anything, you know? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say. “A photo booth is a vending machine or modern kiosk that contains an automated, usually coin operated camera and film processor. Today the vast majority of photo booths are digital”. But the history of the photo booth is what I’m really interested in. So the patent for the first automated photography machine was filed in 1888 by William Pope and Edward Poole of Baltimore. But that was just the patent, the first patent. Right. But the first known actually working photographic machine was a product of the French inventor, T.E. Enjalbert… Enjalbert… Enjalber…
Jordan:
Engelbert.
Lex:
Engelbert. It’d be like Angelburt cause it’s a J. Do you see why I’m like, what? So I’m assuming it’s Enjalbert because he’s French.
Jordan:
Yeah. I’m gonna stick with Angelbert.
Lex:
I’m sorry. Okay. So, this French bitch, good old T.E, in March of 1889, he showed one off at the World’s Fair that he had made in Paris.
Jordan:
The World’s Fair.
Lex:
And then, here we go, a German born photographer named Matthew Steffens from Chicago also filed a patent for such a machine in May of 1889. So none of these machines that were at this point, they weren’t reliable enough to be self-sufficient, so they had to have someone there to help with the process, basically. And the first, but so you have several iterations of this, right, through the late 1800s. And then the modern concept of what we understand to be a photo booth now, with a little curtain that you close off and it’s automated and there’s not a person, you know, taking the pictures for you, was a Russian guy named Anatol Josepho. In 1925, he brought and displayed the first photo booth on Broadway in New York City. And for 25 cents, the booth took, developed, and printed eight photos. And it was a process that took roughly ten minutes. And the first, okay, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about this, and the first six months after the booth was erected, it was used by 280,000 people. The Photomaton company was created to place booths nationwide. And on March 27th, 1927, Josepho was paid $1 million in guaranteed future royalties for his invention. Good on you, bud. That’s a lot of money at that point in time.
Jordan:
That’s a lot of money now.
Lex:
That’s a lot of money now, but that’s really a lot of money for 1927 or whatever. I love how technology is somewhat, and obviously I know that there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that go into making and patenting things. And there’s a reason that a lot of historic inventors are only white men, you know. So I recognize that not everybody had access to show off things at the World’s Fair. That’s a pretty prestigious thing to get to do. So I understand that there are probably people who had this idea before, but we, you know, we didn’t hear about it or wasn’t presented or, you know, all that stuff. But I just think it’s really neat how sometimes technology and new inventions can have this almost Darwinistic effect of you can track, you can see. I just think it’s really interesting how some things, like some technologies, humans as a whole, we will just go bananas for. You think about the advent of the smartphone. That was ripple effects in the change of technology. You think about the light bulb, movies, photography, fucking photo booths, apparently. And people just went bonkers for it. 280,000 people in 1925 in New York City spent money on this. And so I think that that’s something that’s just really interesting to me, right. Yes. There are some very hard to determine factors of how inventions get presented to the public, right? But I do think it’s interesting that certain things prove that they’re interesting enough for people to want to have them forever.
Jordan:
Yeah. It is very charming that in the 1920s that was shared and instantly popped off ‘cause so many people were like, “oh gosh, darn, that’s delightful.” And then you and me, last Friday, saw a photo booth and were like, “well gosh darn, that’s delightful.”
Lex:
We gotta do it.
Jordan:
Almost a hundred years later.
Lex:
And that’s fucking adorable. That’s so cute. I love humans so much sometimes, you know? I know that humanity on the whole can be a lot. That on the whole humanity can be a very depressing entity to observe, but sometimes we do some cute shit. And sitting in a little booth with a curtain shut with your friends or your significant other, or your pet or literally anything.
Jordan:
Your family, yourself, just being like, we’re gonna take a little time to have fun and remember this. It’s so great.
Lex:
It’s so great. And you think about, at least I think about how expensive and inaccessible it was to get your portrait taken for so long, right? So it does make sense that like, hey, in just ten minutes you can have eight photos of you and your friends. That is kind of bananas, right? ‘Cause you think about, instead of, hey, you have to sit perfectly still for the next 30 minutes while this light bulb goes off several times right in your face. That’s a lot. That I feel like, and obviously the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, we saw so much sweeping change with entertainment technology, you know, so it does make sense, right? That the photo booth we understand and know today would come from that era. So, I think that’s interesting too, to think about. I think before I had read that Wikipedia article, if someone had been like, hey, when do you think photo booths were invented? I would probably guess the twenties or thirties. You know? ‘Cause you think about the advent of movies becoming a popular widespread thing and not just some interesting thing that an inventor got to show his friends at the World’s Fair, whatever the fuck, you know. I just think it’s neat.
Jordan:
It’s very neat.
Lex:
And the pictures we took were so cute.
Jordan:
I will say I’m impressed with our ability to just get four good, distinct photos right off the bat. We didn’t talk about it, we didn’t plan.
Lex:
Well, I think that’s the point though. You can’t. You just have to let it guide you. Although I guess, you know, when it’s $5 instead of 25 cents, you do have to kind of be a little bit more judicious.
Jordan:
Yeah. I mean, I know sometimes people have been like, all right, we’ll do a serious one and then we’ll do a silly one and then we’ll do one with our tongue sticking out.
Lex:
And then if there’s couples, they’re like, and we’ll do one where we smooch. Genuinely, that does seem to be a category. Just, and this is the one where they kiss. It was just really fun.
Jordan:
Yeah. Well, thank you for that. That was gosh darn delightful.
Lex:
Just like the photo booths. Gosh darn delightful. Well, hopefully this episode has been, probably not gosh darn delightful, but at least like, gosh darn. Hopefully this episode has been gosh darn.
Jordan:
That is up to you to decide, audience. So we will leave you to it and sign this one out, shall we?
Lex:
Let’s sign it on out. Let’s just fuck right off.
Jordan:
Shall we?
Lex:
Yeah, we shall.
Jordan:
All right. This has been Or, Learn Parkour from Wholehearted Production Company.
Lex:
You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Podcatcher. I don’t, you know, the places where you can find podcasts.
Jordan:
Special thanks to Krizia Perito for our cover art design. You can find her at Petalhop. That’s P-E-T-A-L-H-O-P on Instagram, Twitter, maybe, if you can find anything on Twitter anymore, and Etsy.
Lex:
Thank you as well to Tom Rosenthal for our intro and outro song. There is a Dark Place off of the album Keep a Private Room Behind the Shop.
Jordan:
You can follow us on the sosh meeds. We are, well, okay, so we’re technically still on Twitter. We’re @orlearnparkour. Who knows how long Twitter will exist for? So we don’t plan on updating there anytime soon. But we are on Instagram.
Lex:
Yeah. And we have changed our handle. We used to go by our production company handle on Instagram, but just for ease of access and ease of switching things over to Instagram, you can find us @orlearnparkour on Instagram now.
Jordan:
You sure can. And if all else fails, we are always at wearewpc.com.
Lex:
That’s true. We also have a website. You can find links to all that good shit in our episode description.
Jordan:
You sure can. If you enjoy this podcast and would like to hear more. Now is a great time to click, follow, subscribe, whatever the button on your podcatcher of choice is. And if you wanna start a podcast of your own, hell yeah, you can click the Buzzsprout affiliate link in our episode description. If you start a paid plan with them, you get a great podcasting platform. What’s up? And the company of over a hundred thousand podcasters already using Buzzsprout. You get a little bit of a sweet deal. We get a little kickback to keep the lights on. It’s a win-win.
Lex:
It sure is. If you’d like to support us in any other way, may I suggest giving us money? We have a Ko-fi. If you feel so led, you can find a link to that in our linktree on our Instagram or our website. And we do also appreciate word of mouth. We love friends, we love making friends, and we would love to make friends with your friends. So please introduce Or, Learn Parkour to your friends, family, enemies, frenenemies. I don’t care. Just tell people about us, please. We want to be heard and we want to make money.
Jordan:
And we want to make friends.
Lex:
Yeah, no, that cute stuff too. But also, if you wanna give us money, that’d be cool. But for now, bye.
Jordan:
Yeah. Bye everyone.